


I would have said yes

by languageismymistress



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: 2024 fic, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-11 10:52:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17445524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/languageismymistress/pseuds/languageismymistress
Summary: He could leave and never come back to this place ever again. Leave it, and all its memories behind.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Dear Radiance, 
> 
> I have no regrets. 
> 
> YOLO!
> 
> Love,  
> Scarlet

Soft groans and cracks of limbs being set back into place echoed through the quiet dusty old foundry. Ray didn’t even know if the electricity in the place still worked or was even connected. Shadows and a cold chill were his company for the night. No one wanted to come back to this place. He couldn’t blame them. He didn’t want to be down here. There was no reason for this place to be up and running anymore. Oliver gone. Laurel gone. Felicity, well, no one is sure. Thea and Roy had taken off afterwards, giving Ray a warm and final farewell. He held back his tears. The box was all he was after. He could leave and never come back to this place ever again. Leave it, and all its memories behind. Go back to his empty home and his empty bed and live his now, quiet, empty life. Alone.

 

Five mannequins stood tall among the rumble. The irony that these were the only things to survive. A ghost of the heroes that once were. Ray would have laughed if he could. Even breathing was a difficult thing to process at the moment. The suit being the only thing keeping him going at the moment. He found himself unable to move in front of the one that once held Barry’s suit. The stature, much like the man, standing taller than life itself. Strong and demanding presence, even just being there. A sigh broke through his lips. His head dropping. Eyes looking at the floor. A small black box and ripped parchment at the bottom of the mannequin.

 

_Found you._

 Ray picked up the box, his body groaning at the movement. Again, the suit keeping the rest of him in tack. He ran his finger over the velvet black box, tears welling in the corner of each eye. He turned the parchment. His body collapsing onto the floor. Hands shaking. He knew that handwriting. It once coloured his dull life. Small notes on the mirror. Notes in his lunches. Heartfelt letters when he was aboard the waverider. His heart broke reading the note.

 

_“I would have said yes,”_

 

He stood, legs shaking. The note fell to the floor. He left it there. It will remain in the past with the rumble. He couldn’t look back, he needed to focus on the future. For himself. And for Barry. His Barry.

 


	2. I’ll run home to you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray left the waverider meeting with a smile on his face

  Ray left the waverider meeting with a smile on his face. No jump in his step or weight from his shoulders but the smile was one that was genuine. It was a start. A grateful start. His room in the waverider now had a path to his bed. Clothes were in piles. Books on a table. Bowls and cups now out of the room and in the kitchen sink. Zari told him not to bother with the cleaning. It was her turn and she was happy to see him out of room and in clothes that weren’t pajamas. He had managed a shower in the morning as well. Teeth cleans and steam covering his mirror. He heard Sara calling them in for the meeting so he went, leaving the room in the state he would fix later.

 

Now was later.

 

He tried to do all he could and smiled to himself. Slowly he was getting back on his feet. He picked up one pile and moved them to the laundry chute in his bathroom and dropped them to the floor. The steam was clear but the mirror still foggy. All but a small part of it. To most it was nothing. But Ray knew that handwriting. First glance he thought he was hallucinating again.

 

He blinked.

 

Still there.

 

Blinked once more.

 

Still there.

 

He may have shouted.

 

Nate came barging into the room.

 

Okay, he definitely did shout.

 

“What?”

 

Nate held a baseball bat in one hand and frying pan in another.

 

Ray pointed to the words.

 

Nate titled his head.

 

The words must have meant nothing to him.

 

Nate inspected closer and dropped both baseball bat and frying pan.

 

The symbol.

 

Not much but it was enough.

 

A tiny little lightning bolt above the words.

 

_I’ll run home to you._


	3. It’s not what it looks like

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray pulled that damn ring from his back pocket

Sleep finally was about to take him out for the night when an ear piercing scream ripped through Rays room. The man bolted up and grabbed the closest thing to him, Nate’s baseball bat. With the bat in hand, Ray went running. He knew that damn scream. Had heard it multiple times when he and Nate were on a mission. And right now, Ray was on a mission. Nate was in danger and Ray was going to save his bestie.

 

Barging into Nate’s room, Ray went to swing and two shouts stopped him. One from Nate and the other from a man who Ray almost didn’t see.

 

“It’s not what it looks like,”

 

Ray didn’t care what it looked like. Yes he knows that his husband is standing with nothing but a pillow covering himself in his best friend’s room. He didn’t care. All he could focus on was that his boyfriend was standing there. _His_ boyfriend. His Barry. It took Ray all but three steps to engulf Barry in a hug. Nate nodded and excused himself out of his own bedroom. He heard the others outside. Mick and Len’s words getting cut off by one quick word from Nate. The door closed before any other words could filter in. Ray couldn’t care. Barry was in his arms again. His boyfriends tears soaking into his shirt again. His lean arms wrapped around him again. Everything that Ray loved was in his arms once more and he couldn’t care for anything else at this moment. Just his Barry.

 

Ray pulled back. Barry looked at him with love in his eyes. Ray dropped to one knee.

 

“Ray, I…”

 

“I know you are just back and naked and probably confused, tired and hungry but I just need you, Barry Allen, I need you in my life, in my heart and to be one I can call my own, so please,”

 

Ray pulled that damn ring from his back pocket.

 

“Bartholomew Henry Allen, will you,”

 

The rest of the words were whispered into Barry’s mouth.

 

Ray laughed.

 

Barry pulled back and nodded.

 

Ray slid the ring onto his finger and held on, scared to let him go. Not again. Not ever again will they be apart.

 

 


End file.
